What is the relationship between criminal law and statutory law?

• A. Criminal law is unrelated to statutory law.
• B. Criminal law is a subset of statutory law that defines unacceptable behaviors and their punishments.
• C. Statutory law is a subset of criminal law.
• D. Criminal law governs only misdemeanors.

Answer: (B)

Criminal law is created within the framework of statutory law. Lawmakers codify what conduct is illegal and set the penalties for those offenses. That means criminal law is a portion of statutory law—the statutes define crimes and their punishments, while statutory law altogether covers many kinds of rules, not just criminal ones. In practice, crimes are defined by statutes, and case law interprets those statutes. While some old, court-made (common) crimes exist in some places, modern systems primarily rely on statute to define offenses and penalties. So the relationship is that criminal law is a subset of statutory law that defines unacceptable behaviors and their punishments.